Ken Tanaka breaks his mouth in Hawai’i

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Kris Nelson

Ken Tanaka* is an artist who was born in L.A. and raised by adopted parents in Japan. That’s why he looks like Aphex Twin, but sounds totally nihonjin.

Tanaka-san is the voice of Francis — the narrator of the YouTube Cooking with Dog show that I adore, recently won the 2009 Japan YouTube Video Award, and hosts his own channel helpmefindparents where he includes his travels, trying to find his birth parents Jonathan and Linda Smith.

Ken is totally Japanese, meaning he’s ultra polite and refreshingly silly. For example, he names inanimate objects like his beard “Jacob”… in fact every inanimate object is named “Jacob”. Ken drinks in the world through fresh eyes, endearingly optimistic and open-minded. I think he fared so well in Hawai’i for those reasons.

Here are a few videos of how he “broke his mouth” in Hawai’i and his very first art show Maximum Pleasant in L.A. last Spring.

**NOTE: Ken Tanaka is one of the personas of comedian David Ury. He sure had me fooled. Mahalos Susan for setting me straight! :)